“If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.”
Immediately, however, a messenger enters to announce Juliet’s death.
In “Richard III.” (iii. 2), Hastings is represented as rising in the morning in unusually high spirits. Stanley says:
“The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
Were jocund, and suppos’d their state was sure,
And they, indeed, had no cause to mistrust;
But yet, you see, how soon the day o’ercast.”
This idea, it may be noted, runs throughout the whole scene. Before dinner-time, Hastings was beheaded.
Once more, in “2 Henry IV.” (iv. 2), the same notion is alluded to in the following dialogue:
“Westmoreland. Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
Mowbray. You wish me health in very happy season;
For I am, on the sudden, something ill.
Archbishop. Against ill chances men are ever merry;
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
Westmoreland. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus, ‘Some good thing comes to-morrow.’